Details haven’t emerged yet, such as which specific version of Honeycomb will be used and whether or not it will be customized or left stock. Jenn says the the update is expected to greatly increase the battery life of the device.
This is great news for Streak 7 owners, but it only applies to the WiFi-only version of the device. Apparently T-Mobile’s 3G/4G variant, which StreakSmart points out was recently discontinued, may never receive the update.
An alternative option to acquire Honeycomb is a custom ROM which is an unofficial software release that can be installed to your device if you’ve got the skills necessary. Jenn has a link to that ROM on her original post, go check it out.
Are you a WiFi-only Streak 7 user who’s excited for the Honeycomb Upgrade? Or perhaps a T-Mobiler who’s angry that your device wont be updated? Let us know in our Streak 7 forum.
A leaked Dell Tablet roadmap has revealed three new touchscreen devices may be released this year starting with an Android 10 inch tablet in June.
The leak mentions the Android based 10 inch Dell Streak Pro, a third generation convertible XT tablet (Windows based, and not so portable given that it will probably weigh is excess of 2 KG’s), and the Latitude ST which will run an Intel Oak Trail processor and Windows 7.
According to the leak the new Streak Pro will run a Tegra T25 dual-core A9 (1.2GHz) chip which is a newer version than the Tegra we know from Tablets like the Xoom. I currently use a Viewsonic G-Tab and Motorola Atrix 4G (both with the current Tegra 2) and I’ve been very happy with the performance of both, although the roadmap indicates an overly on top of Android called Dell Stage 1.5 which hopefully won’t detract from the performance of the device. There’s also mention of USB host support (allowing it to access external drives via USB) which is a great feature as having support for this makes life with an Android device much easier.
In my opinion the original Streak [product page] occupied a difficult place in between devices as it was too big to be a phone but too small to be a tablet. At 10 inches the Streak Pro is obviously positioned to compete with the iPad 2 [product page] and that’s a very hard market to compete in. If Dell can get the hardware, software, and features right it will make life a whole lot easier when it goes up against the current king of the 10 inch tablets.
Jump to almost 9 months later and we find a Streak device passing through WiFi certification (this actually happened back in November, but didn’t get uncovered until recently.) The device could be one of several different sizes of Streak devices, but a commercial concept leak from Engadget lets us assume that the device is in fact the forthcoming Dell Streak 7. Let’s also not overlook the fact that Streak Smart called out case designer, Vaja, for listing a 7” Streak on their website.
From the Engadget leak and the WiFi certification, we know that the Dell Streak 7 will be a 7” Android device that functions as a phone as well. It’ll also have WiFi b/g/n and a Gorilla Glass screen. The commercial concept also mentions a “blazing graphics card for on the go gaming” which could indicate some Nvidia Tegra integration, but could also just be marketing speak for “Look, it plays games!”.
the original 5” Streak was already considered huge for a phone (and hasn’t quite taken off)… We’ll have to wait and see how people react to Dell expecting them to use a 7” device as a phone. Chances are, we’ll get a look at this device at CES 2011.
Update: Ben has already posted some U.S.-related news along with some interesting thoughts on the design. Check out his post here.
Information coming though from a couple of German blogs over the last hour indicate that the Duo is going to launch for 549 Euro with the N550 CPU, 2GB RAM and a Broadcom video accelerator.
Over at NDevil we get hands-on from a press conference. Comparison with the Samsung N350 shows that it’s much bigger and thicker. There’s a video too:
NewGadgetsDe also this one is in German have a video up. Launch date is said to be within the next four weeks. Obviously this news is from Dells German marketing team.
Our tracking page is here and we’re looking to analyse this one soon. Initial feeling is that it might be too heavy for any consumer-style tablet work and that as a netbook, there are better options. Looks good though!
For one, I think they have a very interesting take on the convertible form-factor. It’s novel and will definitely get the attention it’s looking for from consumers. I can see people looking at it next to a typical (boring) netbook and opting for the Duo because of its neat design (given that they are similarly priced). The issue is that when the screen is flipped to put the device into Slate mode, the user loses access to the trackpad and keyboard.
On the other hand, I’ve long exclaimed my hatred for touchscreen “shells” that sit on top of Windows. We’ve been using and testing UMPCs for years and this is definitely nothing new. After lots of testing, what have we found? The best UMPCs were those that don’t compromise on controls and then try to make up for it with a poorly designed touchscreen shell. The best ones have usable keyboards and mice intact, and allow users to interact with Windows the way that it was designed to be interacted with – using a keyboard and mouse.
Trying to drop a shell on top of Windows 7 and then claiming it a “touchscreen computer” doesn’t make it useful. Users need to do more than play a slideshow, play a track from their music library, or use some proprietary touchscreen app. They need to be able to control the applications that they use on a daily basis, in an efficient way.
All of this begs the question: will people actually use the touchscreen mode on the Dell Duo? Or will it quickly fade from a neat idea to a rarely used feature?
I have a convertible HP Tablet. I love it and use it as my full time computer. The only time that I utilize the touchscreen is when it’s in Slate mode and when I’m using it for digital ink input. I’ve actually disabled the finger touch input because it interferes with the handwriting, and it rarely, if ever, offers any benefit over a mouse and keyboard (remember, we’re talking Windows here).
The issue with the Dell Duo is that it lacks digital ink input (or I should say good digital ink input) because it uses a capacitive touchscreen which is incapable of tracking a pen unless it’s contacting the screen.. For me, this would make the Duo relatively useless in convertible its slate mode.
But different people use computers in different ways. Will users find useful ways to use the Duo in it’s keyboardless and mouseless slate mode? Let’s hear from the readers, how would you use it?
The Duo is looking very very close to production so official specs should be out soon. 1024×600 capacative screen, docking station, N550 Atom CPU and other specs should be confirmed soon. Here’s another video (see a demo of the swivel mechanism) I got of the Duo this afternoon at the Intel AppUp Elements event in San Francisco.
Here are the video recordings for the Dell Streak live session I did this evening. Thanks to the people in the chat room who asked questions, answered questions and corrected my errors! We had over 300 people drop in for the session. Note that Ustream playback features often get overloaded in the U.S. afternoon/evening so be patient!
Session 1, 17 mins, includes an overview of the device, specifications and some initial impressions.
Session 2, 50 minutes, includes an overview of the keyboard, browsing, video, music and camera.
A little more Streak [Portal page] news out of the D: All Things Digital conference. Cnet has a video of Ron Garriques giving a brief demo of the Dell Streak in which Garriques says that Dell is working on a version of the Streak for the Asian market. Additionally, he says that Flash will be coming to the device in Q4 which means that it’ll be that long until owners see Android 2.2 on the device.
Though Dell doesn’t seem to have yet found a US carrier to launch with, it looks like they’ll be selling the Dell Streak [Portal page] toward the end of June for $500, unlocked, from Dell.com. $500 is reasonable for an unsubsidized device of this caliber.
- Dell UI is ok but I think I still would go with standard Android
- It should have a micro usb port for charging.. I hate carrying custom cables
- Waiting for Android 2.2 will feel looooong.
- Battery life seems better than I thought.. more testing needed..
And a few thoughts of my own after watching his walkthrough:
Headphone jack position couldn’t be worse. The device is already very big, if people are expected to walk around with the Dell Streak in their pocket, having a headphone jack stick out the side of the device while in the pocket will be very annoying.
The fact that the Dell Streak is only running Android 1.6 is really disappointing. This is what happens when you take months and months and months to get a product to market. Presumably it’ll get Android 2.2 eventually, but that won’t happen until Dell gets around to integrating their custom Android interface into 2.2, then deploying it to customers. The sad part is that the Dell Streak is as a disadvantage out of the gate, simply because it isn’t running the latest firmware.
I don’t know where to start with this one but highlighting the incompatibility between Moblin and ARM-based devices is a good place too start and it gives us a hint that this might not be the huge and interesting MID and ‘smart’ book leak that it could have been.
The ‘roadmap’ picked up by Android Central shows three Dell MID devices. The 4.1” 640×480 (also marked up as WVGA) Thunder based on Windows Mobile/Android is the first. Then we have the 5” Streak which is being shown as having a Vodafone (Europe) variant. This is where the Moblin logo appears. The Looking Glass is shown with a 4:3 format screen (800×600) and finally there are a couple of ARM-based netbooks called ‘Sparta’ and Athens. Once again the Moblin logo appears.
Clearly this is an old internal roadmap showing a possible Moblin / Moorestown option for the devices and probably explains the ‘MID’ label. Clearly Intel weren’t ready for Dell so in this case, they lost out to Android and ARM.
Engadget has apparently received a leaked internal Dell announcement, as well as a few images of more upcoming devices in the Dell ‘Mini’ family. We knew that Dell was planning more devices than just the Dell Mini 5 [product page], and now we’re getting our first look at the rest of the family which includes 7” and 10” slates. I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if these are renders of the same device. We’ll likely see some changes before they make their way to the market. No specs have been shared at this time, but it should be safe to assume that the larger slates will be running Android and using the ARM platform, just as the Mini 5 is.
In the podcast we talk about the mobile computing highlights of CeBIT including the Archos 7, four convertible netbooks, the new Atom processors and ION GPU options and much more.
Full show notes and links to download/listen are at Meet:Mobility
We showed you the other week that Engadget got their hands on a pre-production version of the Dell Mini 5 — they initially hooked us up with a nice gallery, but I’ve personally be waiting eagerly for a full list of thoughts, and according to the Mini 5’s popularity chart over in the product database, many of you have been too! Luckily, today is the day that Engadget has decided to grace us with additional Mini 5 info. They’ve done a pretty thorough write-up for a device which isn’t even ready for retail, but we can’t blame them — the Mini 5 is looking better every day. Be sure to watch the video walkthrough in their article, it’s the first thorough hands-on that we’ve seen (out of Dell’s hands) since back when the Mini 5 was known as the Dell Streak! Note the incredible vertical viewing angle at 1:10 in the video.
According to our pal Jenn over at StreakSmart, the WiFi-only version of the Dell Streak 7 is set to receive an official update to Honeycomb next month.
According to Brooke Crothers from Cnet
